Tuesday, December 17, 2013

October was a busy month for us (as it usually is) and came with a lot of first for Harper! Her first time to the pumpkin patch…

Hadley is an old pro at feeding these goats! This was her third time here.

It’s slightly harder to take pictures of two kids than it is with one.

We also went to the state fair! This was Hadley’s third time there as well and Harper’s first! This is one of our favorite things to do in Dallas.

Harper’s first Halloween was a hit! At the last minute I found a scarecrow costume for her, but it looked a little boyish, so we stuck a giant sunflower on the hat. ;) I had found Hadley’s Dorothy costume over a year ago on a clearance rack and had to snag it. I’m so glad I did, it fit her perfectly and she looked so adorable! We went trick-or-treating with our good friends, the Walthers, again. Hadley and Brynn have the best time together, and their little sisters had a pretty good time, too!

I mean… is that not the sweetest thing ever? Next to this one from last year, of course… I can’t believe how much they’ve grown!

Thankfully I’ve had Harper’s monthly updates to keep me posting occasionally but it’s been since August since I’ve posted anything outside of that! Whew. Apparently having a crawling-into-everything-still-not-sleeping-through-the-night-baby and a (almost) three (cue the tears) year old makes for less time on the computer. Who knew?

That said, I’m going to use this post to attempt to get caught up through the holidays. I apologize in advance if I jump around a little. I have no doubt that this post will not be finished in one sitting!

Here we go… the last family outing I left you with was the zoo. Since then we’ve been to the Texas State Fair, Pumpkin Patch, The Arboretum, countless family visits and meals out, transitioned to a new school and a big girl bed for Hadley (in addition to ditching the paci!), transitioned Harper to a big girl car seat (after MUCH research and buying/returning), enjoyed our first Halloween as a family of four, took Hadley to the dentist for the first time, celebrated 6 years of marriage, painted our dining room, hosted our first Thanksgiving, survived the great Ice-mageddon storm in Dallas (although parts of our trees can’t say the same) and are now gearing up for our first Christmas as a family of four!

Okay, now that I write all that out, I think I’m going to break some of those up into separate posts. So here are a TON of pictures…and then some more posts to come!

Hadley started at a new school this year (closer to our new home). I was worried about her transition because she is a lover of all things familiar but she ROCKED it and is loving her new class, teachers and friends!

Shortly after starting school, we decided to finally tackle the paci as well. I am so glad we waited until she was ready, because other than a week or two of spotty naps, she never skipped a beat! She got to pick out a big girl prize (Doc McStuffins doctor kit) after her first full day of no paci and she never even asked for it after that!

And as if the new school and no paci transitions weren’t enough, we decided to bite the bullet and go for the big girl bed, too!

Waking up after her first successful night in her big girl bed! (Note the crib to the left…justincase) ;)

Ever since we’ve been slowly but surely working on her big-girl room designs. I’ve painted the walls, re-arranged the furniture a little, added some new color and décor… but it’s not quite finished. As soon as I can find some good lamps and the perfect something for over her bed I’ll post some pictures!

And while I’m on the subject of Hadley-milestones, I’ll go ahead and throw in her first visit to the dentist! This visit was more of a “happy visit” as they call it, and they just counted her teeth and painted princess vitamins (aka flouride) on her teeth, then let her pick out a prize and sent us on her way. She loved it and asked for weeks if her princess vitamins were still there!

And we had lots of fun play dates with friends and family! (Oh and as you might be able to tell, I colored my hair DARK brown somewhere in there, too.)

Friday, December 6, 2013

This month I had to bribe Harper with a toy, then quick take it away and shake it over my head (hence the looking up picture). Then we had to practice our “How big is Harper??” trick to keep her from diving head first off the chair… made for a funny photo shoot that’s for sure!

Oh sweet Harper. Ten months old today. How are you growing so quickly? I feel so blessed to be able to stay home with you, but sister you have been exhausting this month!

You are pulling up to standing on ev.ry.thing, ev.ry.where, all.day.long. I have found myself wishing that we lived in a giant padded room lately so I could just let you crawl around and explore without having to constantly watch you or stop you from pulling a table over on your head. Hadley really never did this. She didn’t crawl until almost 14 months old and walked a month later and even then was very cautious. You, on the other hand, are adventurous! Crawling into every nook & cranny and pulling up on anything that will support your weight! Busy, busy, busy is the best way to describe you right now!

While you are thrilled with your new skill…big sister is not quite as impressed with your ability to get to ALL the toys now.

You are still taking two naps/day around 10:30 and 3 that usually last about 2 hours each. Bedtime is around 7:30 and you’re up for the day between 7:30 and 8. More often than not you wake up once, but you are still occasionally giving me full 12 hour stretches. One of these days… ;)

You’ve eaten pretty much everything that we eat by now. You loved your first Thanksgiving dinner and chowed down on some turkey, green beans, green chile corn, mac and cheese, stuffing and sweet potatoes. And of course we couldn’t leave out your beloved blueberries. They are a must-have for every meal! You’re eating 3 meals a day with occasional snacks in between and drinking pretty well out of straw sippy cups. Good thing, because you no longer like bottles and mommy and daddy have a holiday party to go to this month, so here’s hoping you like milk out of a straw! :)

This month we started a class at The Little Gym and sister, you are in your element there. No adjustment period needed for you, you crawled right on in and made yourself at home clapping to the songs, crawling on the mats and waving/climbing all over the other little ones in there. You are babbling da-da now (!) and some ‘G’ and ‘L’ sounds in addition to the ‘B’ and ‘M’s you were doing before and love playing with the pitch of your voice. Most days you sound like a donkey with the high-low variations. :)

You love to wave hello to everyone you see these days, you’ll smack your lips together when we ask you to blow a kiss, and you laugh in the face of danger. Literally. If I tell you “no, no” or “danger” when you are attempting to stick your fingers in an electrical outlet you will either laugh at me and keep trying or laugh and then scream and throw yourself backwards in a fit. The teenage years should be fun. ;) Another sweet thing you’ve started doing is tucking your arms under you when I’m snuggling you or rocking you before bedtime. You’ll do it if you’re upset, too and I pick you up to console you – you just put your head on my shoulder and tuck your arms under and it melts my heart!

No doctor’s appointment, so I don’t have your official stats, but here are our guesses:

Height: 30in

Weight: 22.5 lbs

Clothes: 18-24m for the most part. Some 12-18month and even a couple 2T tops!

Diapers: Size 4 but you could probably move to size 5. Daddy has put Hadley’s size 6 overnight diaper on you by accident a few times and they worked, too!

Oh, and still no teeth! Big sister had SEVEN by this point so you’ve got some catching up to do! We cannot WAIT to watch you experience your first Christmas in a couple weeks! Love you to the moon sweet girl!

About Me

I am a follower and child of Christ, a wife to a wonderful husband, stay-at-home mom to two beautiful girls, a daughter, a sister, a teacher, baker, cook, and a wannabe decorator. Thanks for stopping by while I chronicle our lives together!